Fourth Floor Common Room, Thursday Evening

[nottrivial]

Alec had more Chinese food than any human really needed and the TV was stuck.

The TV was stuck on a show that seemed to be mainly about teenagers who lived in a house together and did stupid things, to be specific. They didn't seem to like each other, and the ones that did like each other had very odd ways of showing it; none of them seemed to have jobs or any obligations outside of going to the beach, drinking, and fighting with each other; and the camera regularly zoomed in the face of one of the girls, whose face was a color not typically found in nature and certainly not found on the average person's skin.

Alec... didn't understand it at all. Not the show itself, not the appeal of the show, none of it. But the TV refused to turn off, so he stared blankly at the screen as he ate his Chinese food, missing aaaall the jokes and becoming increasingly annoyed with the characters. As you do.

Comments

[yinandyango.livejournal.com]

Being anti-social was one thing; starving yourself was another thing altogether. The rumble in Fawn's stomach told her it was probably time to put down the Hunger Games poetry for a little bit and go try to find something to eat in the common room. She had been hoping no one would be there, but, after a quick peek revealed that there was, she clutched her notebook to her chest and made the attempt to cut across the space to the kitchette area without being notice.

Fat chance, but a girl could always hope. And then there was the added difficulty of actually making something to eat without being notice, too.

[nottrivial]

It was a shame, really, that part of Alec's Shadowhunter training had hinged on his learning to detect movement, no matter how stealthy the person tried to be.

So yes, he turned, even if his own antisocial instincts might've preferred that he kept his eyes on the screen. Oh, well. Nothing for it now.

"Hello."

[yinandyango.livejournal.com]

And stealth, truly, was not one of Fawn's skills, since her idea of stealthing involved mostly shuffling steps and a lot of hair in her face. She froze at the refrigerator, wondering if she should pretend she didn't hear him.

But then she turned around, keeping her head down but tucking her hair behind her ear. "Hi."

[nottrivial]

"If you're looking to be entertained, the program on the TV is terrible," Alec warned her. "And the channel doesn't seem to change."

[yinandyango.livejournal.com]

"If I'm looking to be entertained," Fawn said, a little wryly, with an almost sympathetic look over at the boy, "I wouldn't be turning on the TV at all. I'm actually just looking for something to eat."

[nottrivial]

Fair enough.

Without another comment, Alec turned back to his food -- and, by unfortunate circumstances of proximity, the television screen as well. After several more jokes flew over his head without eliciting so much as a snicker from him, something occured to him, and he turned back around.

"There's some extra Chinese food on that table there. The delivery guy brought more than I ordered, but he wouldn't take it back when I pointed it out to him."

[yinandyango.livejournal.com]

"Did he charge you for it?" asked Fawn, who pulled out from the fridge a bag of lettuce, and a cucumber, and some carrots she found, and seemed to be going about the task of making a salad. When you grew up on a diet of organic, all-natural foods before organic, all-natural foods were cool, things like Chinese take-out did not register high on the "pleasant things to eat" list.

[nottrivial]

...Oh, Fawn, you hippie sweet summer child.

"No." Alec would almost have preferred it if he had. "Apparently delivering more food than people order is accepted protocol around here. He said it happens all the time."

[yinandyango.livejournal.com]

"Weird," said Fawn, wrinkling her nose a little bit. She got out a cutting board and a knife for the carrots. "I guess that explains why there seems to be an infinite supply of leftovers in the fridge, though."

Oh, Freak School. Turns out you did have some benefits.

[nottrivial]

"There is?" Huh. "I didn't think to look there," Alec admitted. "Back home we usually skip checking for leftovers and just order food. My sister sometimes cooks and leaves her food in the fridge and it's best not to go near it."

[yinandyango.livejournal.com]

"Not a very good cook?" Fawn assumed. "And you must be new."

And, look at her, reveling a little bit in that statement as though she'd been here for ages and talked to people enough to be able to determine whether they were new or not.

[nottrivial]

"Not by any definition of the word," Alec confirmed. Then paused. "I mean, my sister being a good cook. But I am new. Yes."

[yinandyango.livejournal.com]

"Do you live on this floor?" Fawn asked, tilting her head in a gesture of interest, though her attention was mostly on slicing the carrots and partially imagining what would happen if she missed and sliced off a finger instead. Probably her pinkie. They were baby carrots, so they were about the same size, and that just had her mind wandering to slicing off other, slightly larger appendages...

[nottrivial]

"Yes, in 401," he reported, turning his whole body to see her better now that he was fairly sure that this conversation was going to be an ongoing thing. "With Victor. Do you?"

[yinandyango.livejournal.com]

Fawn nodded. "403, with Peeta." She looked up and gave what looked like an uncertain smile. "That makes us neighbors."

[nottrivial]

"I guess so," he agreed, though without mirroring the strange anxiety he spotted on Fawn's face. He wasn't sure what that was about.

"So if you figured out I'm new, I take it that that means you aren't?"

[walkswithcoyote]

Mercy had been coming in after a trip into town when she smelled Chinese food and followed her nose to the 4th floor common room. She smiled when she saw her little brother there. "Hey, Alec, how's it going?"

[yinandyango.livejournal.com]

"I might just be really smart," Fawn pointed out, "but I just sort of figured. I'm not as new. I came here at the beginning of summer."

[nottrivial]

He nodded. "What do you think so far?"

[nottrivial]

"All right," he said after a moment's consideration. "It's been a quiet few days."

[yinandyango.livejournal.com]

Fawn shrugged a shoulder, keeping her true thoughts mostly to herself, since explaining to the new kid that the place, to her, felt like a dumping ground for misfit persons didn't seem altogether very nice. So she let the half-hearted shrug and the steady rhythm of chopping cucumbers speak for itself.

[nottrivial]

Alec let that linger there for a moment.

Then he offered, "That seems to be where I'm at too."

[yinandyango.livejournal.com]

Fawn's lips quirked slightly in the suggestion of a grin, so she lowered her head to let her hair hide it better, lest it be seen. Then she tossed it back over her shoulder once she had composed the slip in her stoicism, before dumping the cucumbers into a bowl.

"Where are you from?" she asked.

[walkswithcoyote]

She nodded, but her smile was teasing. "Yeah, it has been. The island's probably trying to lull all the newbies into a false sense of security. At least we're in a couple of classes together."

[nottrivial]

"New York. City." He took a moment to fish some final noodles out of the bottom of his container, then looked back up. "You?"